Having said that I guess there’s only so much you can do with cereal that hasn’t been done before.

Goldenvale Wheat biscuits

I don’t eat Weetbix religiously but I do like to have them for breakfast from time to time. Aldi’s offering is a lot lighter in colour then Weetbix, if you hold the two side by side Wheat Biscuits look almost bleached white. I don’t know if this is crappier wheat or a different way of manufacturing the product but whatever it is Goldenvale do different it doesn’t work.

Wheat biscuits turn into sludge at the slightest hint of milk, they don’t go soggy they just dissolve into a wheat swamp in your bowl. The taste is kind of raw, if Wheatbix were bread then wheat biscuits is like eating dough and no matter how much sugar I piled on I just couldn’t get them to taste any good. I’d definately give these a miss and stick with Weetbix.

Manufactured: Australia


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Seriously who’s paying $5+ for a tiny loaf of a bread?

Bakers Taste 8 Pack Muffins

When I saw these were $2.19 my gut feeling was that they were going to be absolute garbage as with most muffins you’re paying $3.50 upwards for a pack of 6. Suprisingly though they are good. They are noticeably thinner then regular muffins and aren’t as fluffy, but they are delicious stacked with some tasty fillings.

At 8 for just over two dollars they are an absolute bargain, stop reading this page and go buy some now.

Manufactured: Australia

Bakers Taste White Toast

Bakers Taste White Toast isn’t going to win and gourmet bread awards but it’s a solid toasting bread that’s dirt cheap at $1.10. Most homebrand bread suffers from being too thin and dry, Bakers Taste Toast is nice and thick with a decent taste. It’s not as doughy as bread from a baker but for the price it’s more then adequate for toast in the morning.

Manufactured: Australia


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Aldi meats are definately an option if you’ve missed the weekend butcher run or just simply ran out of time.

Brannan’s Extra Lean Beef Mince

I usually buy the 3 star mince or cheapest. I know it has more fat in it but I find the fat means I don’t really need to use oil and I can drain off excess. Aldi were sold out of regular mince so I tried out their extra lean mince.

While cooking it there was little to excess fat released into the pan. Taste wise it was as good as any mince I’d had but texture wise it was quite ‘stringy’. I’m used to mince crumbling so it felt weird having the mince stay as string despite constant stirring in the pan. I don’t usually buy premium mince so I’m not sure if it’s a characteristic of no fat mince or just the Aldi version.

At $11 a kg it was well above the $6-$7 a kg you pay for mince at the local butcher or at the markets so I won’t be buying again.

Manufactured: Australia


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Sauces are versatile and with a an accompanying selection of cheap meats and some frozen vegetables it’s not hard to quickly whip up office lunch for the week for under $10. Spreads go great with Aldi’s offering of breads and Sauces add a bit of zing to anything.

Remano Garden Vegetable Pasta Sauce

I’m of the belief that nothing compares to homemade pasta sauce but let’s face it, sometimes you just can’t be bothered. That’s when pasta sauce in a jar comes in handy.

Remano Garden Vegetable Pasta Sauce is saucy and has a decent amount of vegetable chunks in it but it lacks a distinct tomatoey richness. The sauce tries to compensate with salt or perhaps an artificial tomato flavour, similar to the difference in taste between canned tomato soup and the powder stuff.

Having said that it I’m not suggesting it tastes bad. If you’re on a budget and don’t mind the tomato flavour cutback then at $1.60 a jar Aldi pasta sauce is a bargain.

Manufactured: Australia (from local and imported ingredients)

Asia Specialties – Soy Sauce

I found for dipping this soy sauce was a tad too salty and tasted a lot like sea water with a tiny hint of soy. For cooking though it’s fine but at $1.49 for 625ml any Asian grocery store should be able to offer you a premium soy sauce for about the same price. I’d give this one a miss.

Manufactured: Indonesia

Bramwells Choc Hazlenut Spread

I’ve yet to taste anything that comes close to the richness of Nutella so I was aprehensive about trying Bramwells offering. As expected it doesn’t match the taste of Nutella. The best way to describe the taste is to imagine eating belgian milk rich 30-35% cocoa chocolate, that’s Nutella. Now imagine eating cheap nasty easter egg chocolate, that’s Bramwells choc hazlenut spread.

It does taste decent enough on bread but the rich chocolatey flavour is noticeably lacking instead it feels like you’re eating melted down cheap easter eggs. Probably one to miss unless you’re not particular fussy when it comes to chocolate.

Manufactured: Germany


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Mamma Mia Ham & Pineapple Frozen Pizza

Nobody buys frozen pizza expecting a gourmet meal. You buy frozen pizza because it’s cheap and nasty and the dough never tastes quite right. They are for when you can’t be arsed and make a good lunch snack on weekends.

On these aspects Aldi frozen pizzas deliver (not literally!). They are excellent value at 2 pizzas for just over $5 and weigh in at 1kg a box. Brand pizzas are usually 500-750g for one pizza and cost around $6-$8 each. The toppings are a little sparse but what frozen pizzas aren’t? Definatly a snack to keep stocked up on.

Manufactured: Australia (from local and imported ingredients)

Amesbury Bakeries Premium Pies 4 pack

The biggest problem with frozen meat pies (aside from trying not to think about what’s in them) is the texture of the meat and the gravy ratio, thankfully Amesbury have got it just right. The pies are noticeably shorter height wise then their more expensive cousins and the pastry is slightly thinner but the meat in there is delicious.

The premium pies retail at $4.49 so it’s a bit of an expensive freezer filler but there is a cheaper non-premium variety that i’ll test out soon.

Manufactured: Australia

International Cuisine Satay Beef

The worst thing about International Cuisine’s Satay Beef is the cooking time. The second worst thing was the taste. As with the Silk’s frozen meals the pack says to put it in the microwave for 6-8 minutes (I chose 7 but in hindsight 6 is more then adequate maybe even 5). Whilst this doesn’t sound bad I decided to try these at work for a week and every day wound up holding up the microwave whilst a queue formed. By the end of the week I dreaded heading to the kitchen to heat it up.

The frozen satay beef was way to sweet, it felt like it had tons of sugar in it. The rice, beef and vegetables were fine but it was really let down by the sauce. I’d definately recommend the Silks Fine Indian Cuisine flavours over this, avoid.

Manufactured: TBA (forgot to check pack)

Silks Fine Indian Cuisine

These come in Rogan Josh and Chicken Tikka Masala flavour and let me just say right off the bat they are delicious. For $4.49 they come in at cheaper then most meals from a cafe and the serving sizes are generous. They aren’t as good as the homecooked versions but on both days I had these I had compliments on the aroma as they cooked in the microwave.

The only problem, as with the International Cuisine Satay Beef version, is the cooking time of 6-8 minutes. However if you have a quiet kitchen at work go for it, these are definately one of the best frozen food meals I’ve ever tasted.

Manufactured: TBA (forget to check pack)


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Farmdale Milk

Unless you’re the chinese, it’s pretty hard to stuff up milk. You get a machine to milk the cow, then sterilise the crap out of it and finally dilute it down with water. Suprisingly Aldi milk doesn’t taste like crap. If you’re drinking milk on its own you might want to splurge on a name brand but for mixing, Aldi milk is fine. It did make my milo seem to taste a tiny bit sour but that might have been in my head.

Costs about 50-70c less then other homebrand milk and comes in 2L, 3L and diet variety; i’d probably skip the diet variety all together.

Manufactured: Australia

Millvale Cordial

I originally walked past the cordial at Aldi mistaking it for kitchen disinfectant, it wasn’t till I got to the end of the store that I went back and started hunting around for it.

Millvale cordial is less concentrated then Cottees, Millvale mixes 4:1 while cottees mixes 5:1. What this means is that for the 1.5L bottles I use instead of 250ml of cordial a bottle I have to use 300ml, so instead of the 6 bottles of cordial I get with Cottees 2L I only get 5 with Millvale 2L. To make up for this Millvale cordial is $2 for 2L, about $1-1.50 cheaper then Cottees.

Tastewise Millvale Lime is very mellow, which sounds bad but is quite refreshing. Lime does leave a bit of an aftertaste in your mouth but it’s nothing to worry about. Unfortunately Millvale cordial is only available in three flavours, orange, lime and fruitcup; Cottees on the other hand has 6-7 different flavours. I need my cola flavoured cordial so I’ll still be buying the Cottees variety of that but will use Aldi for the other 2 bottles.

Manufactured: Australia (from local and imported ingredients)

Flying Power Energy Drink

When I saw this on the shelf I couldn’t help but giggle like a school girl. The name ‘Flying Power’ just screams cheap chinese knockoff of Red Bull but as a semi regular consumer of energy drinks I was actually excited about trying it.

At $1.29 a can it’s definately the cheapest energy drink i’ve ever seen so I was expecting some nasty petrol flavoured stuff, anyone who drank the original ‘Mother’ will know what i’m talking about.

Suprisingly Flying Power tasted more like V without the citrus flavour then it’s namesake Red Bull (red bull gives you wings, flying power… gettit?). That’s not to say it’s a bad taste, it’s like someone got a can of V and dumped half of it and replaced it with fizzy mineral water or something.

I did get a bit of a headache towards the end of the can but I’m not sure if that was drink related. Already feeling guilty about what energy drinks do to my body I probably won’t be having this too often, but it beats paying $2-$3 for a V or Redbull (one day i’ll grab one of those 6 packs of the Asian Red Bull I see at the local Asian supermarket for $10).

Manufactured: Austria


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Damora Chicken Flavoured Snacks

These were an absolute dead ringer for ‘Chicken-in-a-biskit’ flavour and biscuit texture wise. I wouldn’t be at all suprised if they were both made at the same factory or at least with very similar ingredients making up the flavouring. At $1.39 each these are excellent value compared to Arnotts Shapes or the in-a-biskit snacks which are usually well over $2.

Manufactured: Australia

New Day Bubble Bar Choc Rainbow

These were the most chocalety looking bars Aldi had, they weren’t bad but they weren’t good either. It was like someone had taken half the chocolate flavour out of a normal ‘rice bubbles’ type bar, the end result being the rice bubble taste was a lot more prominent then the chocolate, the smartie type things on the top of the bars was a nice touch though. Kids probably wouldn’t complain about it but for adults you’d probably want something a bit more chocolatey in taste.

Manufactured: New Zealand (from local and imported ingredients)

Chocolate Stampede Dairy Snack

These looked decent enough in the store but when I got home I noticed a whole bunch of asian (chinese?) writing on the packet which set off my alarm bells. It says it’s manufactured in Australia (from imported ingredients) so I’m not sure if the asian writing was on there because Aldi are exporting them or whether they are being dodgy and importing them.

Asian writing on pack

The snack itself is like the dark chocolate version of regular dairy snacks. The taste of the Aldi version feels like it is missing milk, it’s got a distinct bitter chocolately taste to it which I’m not a fan of. I like my chocolate milky and sweet. There was also drips of the product on the outside of the tub I opened, initially I thought mine must have been leaking but the seal waas intact, not sure if one of the other tubs are leaking in the pack or it was dodgily packed at the plant.

Either way, this 12 pack was only 50-60c cheaper then the regular Milo packs I get so I’ll be steering clear of this snack in the future.

Manufactured: Australia (from local and imported ingredients)

Potato Sprinters Chips

When it comes to salt and vinegar chips the only thing that matters is the balance between salt and vinegar. You could be eating a chip made from the world greatest potato but if the flavouring isn’t balanced it’s going to taste horrible.

Salt and Vinegar Potato Sprinters (no idea what the brand is supposed to mean, everytime I see it I think ‘potato sphincters’) get the ratio right but the intensity of the flavour felt like about half that of named brands. They also left a powdery sensation in my mouth, i’m not sure if that was just the fine salt used or the actual potato chip itself.

I did get thirsty extremely quick so it was probably the salt they used. If you eat chips a lot then the taste hit might justify the cost saving, however if they are a treat for you it might be worth spending the extra 50-70c and getting a stronger flavour experience.

Chicken flavour didn’t leave me with the powdery taste in my mouth and the weaker flavour actually works in its favour. Usually when you buy chicken chips the flavouring is so strong you tend to feel a bit bloated halfway down the packet and have to have a break, with the Sprinter variety it almost felt like I was eating a light (i’m tempted to say diet but diet varities of things tend to have a crap taste and the taste here was actually good) chip.

Barbeque flavour had me harkening back to the glorious Samboy chip days. These not only didn’t have the powdery effect of salt and vinegar but they also had the flavour balance just right too. Easily the best of the three flavours on offer.

Manufactured: Australia (from local and imported ingredients)

Corale Baked Beans – Tomato

These baked beans retail for what “premium” baked beans sell for when on special at the major supermarkets. For 99c they are a bargain and definately worth having a few in the pantry. The tomato taste is just right and the beans taste exactly the same as Heinz etc. that cost upwards of $1.50.

Manufactured: Italy

Jade Cup Noodles

Most cup noodles start at about $1.50 and work their way up to $5 for the premium asian ones with real beed pieces inside. Jade cup noodles weigh in at 80c each, for the price they are excellent value even if they are a bit salty tasting, probably a result of slightly more sodium then other brands.

The noodles come in a cup and you get a standard dried vegetable packet and flavour satchel. No oils, onions or chili. Beef flavour was a bit weak but still tasty, chicken and corn flavour was massively salty but still edible. Flavours available are Beef, Chicken, Chicken and Corn and Oriental. All four suffer from the generic salty taste.

Probably not something you’d want to eat everyday but good enough for the odd lunch snack at work or on the weekend. I’ll probably stick to the Asian grocery store offerings (Imperial big bowl chilli beef or Mi-Goreng satay) for now.

Manufactured: Australia

Sweet Valley Two Fruits

No complaints here other then the serving packs are a bit small but most tub fruit is the same. The fruits were the good ol’ peach and pear and tasted great. At $2.99 for a 4-pack you’re looking at 75c a tub which is good value for money.

The fruits are manufactured in China but should be ok, I haven’t heard of the Chinese stuffing up fruit yet.

Manufactured: China

New Day Dippits

One thing that’s always bugged me about the biscuit + cheese combos is I always want more when I have them. I can easily polish off a whole packet of biscuits if I have enough dip in one sitting so having 3 biscuits + a small amount of cheese spread can be frustrating.

The French Onion cheese dip tasted very chemically in these packs. I could barely taste the french onion and the cheese tasted like melted down super cheap kraft singles or something. I won’t be buying these again.

Cheddar Cheese on the other hand was much more cheesey tasting and actually quite tasty. It wasn’t gourmet cheese but there’s only so much you can expect from cheese that lasts non-refridgerated. The Cheddar flavour is now a staple as my office morning snack.

Manufactured: Australia (from local and imported ingredients)


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Shopping at Aldi is depressing, the stores attract people who cant dress properly and families with kids who think they can open whatever they want and start eating. There’s no background music and the environment is very stale.


The queues are often ridiculous as people buy such large quantities of things I wouldn’t be suprised if they only shopped once or twice a year; Aldi is like the the MSY of supermarkets.

These negatives however are all easilytrumped by Aldi’s prices.

I hadn’t shopped at Aldi since my student days and I remember the biggest challenge about shopping at Aldi was walking into the store and being bombarded with dozens of knockoffs from brands you have never heard of.

In the longterm it can be a costly experiment (both in terms of money and your tastebuds) to try out the selection they have and decide what does work on the cheap and what doesn’t.

For this reason I decided to start an online collection of Aldi Australia products. I’ll try and add a few new items a week as I do my day to day shopping so the list will start out small but over time hopefully become a useful resource for those wishing to take the Aldi plunge.

Having a list is much, much easier to remind myself what to stay away from before I head out to do my shopping and hopefully it’ll give those just venturing out into Aldi world an idea of what to expect when it comes to bang for your buck.

I’ve deliberately left out fruit and veg as the prices tend to fluctuate and seasonal fruit is too annoying to keep track of.

Happy Aldi’ing!

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